Weaned kid ration: plan growth with your own feeds

What information is needed to plan a kid ration?

Body weight, sex, whether a male is castrated and target daily gain determine a kid’s feeding needs. The calculation is intended for weaned kids housed in a barn and fed at the trough. For meat, dairy and local goat types weighing 20 to 60 kg, with daily gains from 0 to 0.2 kg, its energy, protein, intake, calcium and phosphorus results agree with the Langston University goat calculator. Choose the type that matches your kids and use their current weights when planning their daily feed.

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What might one kid’s daily ration contain?

For example, HerdMobile calculates 0.76 kg of alfalfa hay and 0.30 kg of goat feed for a 40 kg weaned female meat kid gaining 0.1 kg a day. Together, these supply 0.94 kg of dry matter containing 18.1% crude protein. Use the dry matter and protein values for your own hay and feed, because those values affect the amounts needed. Introduce changes gradually over several days, offer hay first and split the grain between two meals to help keep rumen conditions steady.

Which mineral limits matter for growing kids?

The ration uses a calcium to phosphorus ratio of at least 2 to 1 and a copper ceiling of 40 mg per kilogram of dry matter. Fibre, starch and fat are checked too. Include every feed and mineral supplement with its label values so the calculation reflects what the kids eat. Add purchase prices and feed stocks in HerdMobile to see the cost per kid per day. Weigh a sample of kids every two weeks and adjust the gain target and ration as they grow. Keep clean water and loose minerals labelled for goats within reach, with enough trough space for all kids to eat together.